Daniya Mussina walks on the top deck of the boat as it sails through the Port of Long Beach during an eco-fashion show on Tuesday in a preview for the Aquarium of the Pacific's Urban Ocean Festival. Mussina's outfit was designed by Marina Debris and is made of materials found in the North Pacific Gyre.
JOSH MORGAN
, PHOTOS: JOSH MORGAN, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Designer Marina Debris puts a hat made of reclaimed materials from the North Pacific Gyre on model Daniya Mussina during the eco-fashion show at a preview Tuesday for the Aquarium of the Pacific's Urban Ocean Festival.
JOSH MORGAN
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JOSH MORGAN, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

A painting by artist Megan Ai is displayed on a table during the festival preview. JOSH MORGAN, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Artist Megan Ai looks out of a boat window after giving a presentation Tuesday on her piece that is to be featured in the Aquarium of the Pacific's upcoming Urban Ocean Festival.
JOSH MORGAN,
,
JOSH MORGAN, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Two attendees of the Aquarium of the Pacific's Urban Ocean Festival preview Tuesday look out at the Port of Long Beach before demonstrations of eco-fashion, art, and sustainable seafood begin.
JOSH MORGAN,
,
JOSH MORGAN, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Daniya Mussina walks on the top deck of the boat as it sails through the Port of Long Beach during an eco-fashion show on Tuesday in a preview for the Aquarium of the Pacific's Urban Ocean Festival. Mussina's outfit was designed by Marina Debris and is made of materials found in the North Pacific Gyre.
JOSH MORGAN
, PHOTOS: JOSH MORGAN, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Art for the ocean

As part of its Urban Ocean Festival, the Aquarium of the Pacific is hosting an art show and fashion contest. Tuesday's preview featured two models with clothing designs crafted from trash and recycled materials for Trashin' Fashion Show.

A designer who calls herself Marina DeBris — an "artivist," a portmanteau of artist and activist, she says — designed her outfit, A Captive Audience, from netting found far out in the Pacific Ocean near Venice and Playa del Rey.

"There isn't a day that goes by where I don't find significant plastic pollution on the beach," DeBris said. The outfit is "a statement about how animals are becoming entangled in the fishing wire."

More than 90 percent of American seafood is imported from other countries, often from places with much more lax regulations and looser requirements for environmentally friendly fishing, according to the Aquarium of the Pacific.

In American waters, it’s a very different story, and that’s why the Aquarium is advocating locally caught seafood.

“The U.S. fisheries are very well managed. There’s lots of rules and regulations,” said Betsy Suttle, the outreach coordinator for the Aquarium’s Seafood for the Future program. “So when you buy locally, you know it’s sustainable.”

On Tuesday, in a preview of its Urban Ocean Festival that will take place in May, the Aquarium hosted a sustainable seafood cooking demonstration by food and beverage company SAVOR. Aboard a Harbor Breeze Cruises ship, chef Daniel Bustamante pan-seared locally caught mackerel, serving it with roasted potatoes and herbs.

Each year, the Aquarium says, Americans consume an average of about 16 pounds of seafood per person. One-third of the global fisheries that food comes from have collapsed in the past decade, and two-thirds of them are in crisis.

The Aquarium’s goal with its Seafood for the Future program is to educate on environmentally friendly fishing and give the public information on what types of fish are local and which are best suited for fishing.

“A species that’s caught in the U.S., that might be a good choice, but if it’s farmed in Vietnam, it might not be,” Suttle said, stressing the importance of accurate information. “I think a lot of people just throw their hands up in the air and give up.”

Protections for U.S. fisheries began in the 1970s, Suttle said, with the passage of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act in 1976. The Act sought to conserve fisheries while still promoting fishing of them, often by monitoring fish populations. The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 protected sea lions and dolphins from fishing and slaughter.

Protections for fisheries increased with the 2009 passage of the United States National System of Marine Protected Areas. In California, a statewide system of Marine Protected Areas has been phased in over the past several years.

“With the Marine Protected Areas, there are more fish there and it’s a good place for the fish to spawn and grow up and then they move out to new areas,” Suttle said.

Rodney Majeske, a fisherman based out of San Pedro who provided the mackerel for Tuesday’s demonstration, has seen the decline of the fisheries firsthand.

“Nowadays your catches are small, not like it was years ago,” Majeske said.

As Majeske sees it, a complicated set of climate, fishing and other factors has changed the makeup of the oceans. He hasn’t seen El Niño — the periodic warming of tropical Pacific waters — for years. He hasn’t fished much tuna recently — mackerel are more prolific. Even the types of squid getting caught in his nets have changed — he’s seeing more of the large Humboldt squid.

With leaner times in the fishing industry, nothing that gets caught in the nets goes to waste.

“The days of throwing fish away are over,” Majeske said. “We use everything.”

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